News & Analysis

D/ST Wins Championships - Week 10

By nachmany5 &bullet;
Nov 6, 2014

Starting the same D/ST every week is one of the worst moves a fantasy owner can make. It’s much safer to bet against a bad offense than it is to bet on a good defense. The notion of a ‘great’ D/ST is flawed; you can get top-level production by streaming defenses based on matchups. Check out this column every week to find out which D/STs you can and should pick up off of the waiver wire.

The Rules: Each week, I’ll highlight three easily-acquired D/ST’s that are worthy of a start in 12-team formats. The D/STs that I pick must be owned in less than 40 percent of leagues so that each unit is likely available in your own league. To establish credibility over the course of the season, I’ll review how my picks from last week did.

Last Week’s Picks: Last week’s column struggled a bit, but still hit on two of its three selections. The piece advised picking up either the Ravens, Redskins or Browns D/ST. In a 12-team league, both the Ravens and the Browns would have been fine starts. The Browns and Ravens’ D/STs ranked ninth and 12th, respectively, in the league in Week 9. Despite the fact that they were playing the Steelers, the Ravens made it onto our column last week and performed admirably for a defense thought to be overmatched. They managed to make it into the top 12, which puts them in the “reasonable start” category in a 12-team league. As for the Browns, they were unsurprisingly very good once again. It’s becoming increasingly possible to nail defenses that will post a lot of points; we’ve hit at least two top 12 teams every single week of the season.